The Dáil was dissolved and the general election called by President Mary McAleese on 1 February, at the request of Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Cowen had previously announced on 20 January that the election would be held on 11 March, and that after the 2011 budget had been passed he would seek a dissolution of the 30th Dáil by the President.

[d] Following the collapse of the coalition, the then minority governing party, Fianna Fáil, sought to minimise its losses following historically low poll ratings in the wake of the Irish financial crisis.

[7] Fine Gael sought to gain a dominant position in Irish politics after poor results in the 2000s, and to replace Fianna Fáil for the first time as the largest party in Dáil Éireann.

[10] The Green Party, having been in coalition with Fianna Fáil during the Government of the 30th Dáil, faced stiff competition for its votes and was expected to lose at least four of its six seats.

[11] Sinn Féin was expected to make gains, encouraged by a by-election victory in November 2010 and by opinion polls which placed it ahead of Fianna Fáil.

Some other left-wing groups, including People Before Profit, Workers and Unemployed Action and the Socialist Party, contested the general election under a joint banner, the United Left Alliance.

[28] On 18 January he called for and won a vote of confidence within the party (which had been precipitated by revelations of two previously undisclosed meetings with Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick) with a majority of the 71 Fianna Fáil deputies supporting him.

[5] Cowen resigned as Fianna Fáil leader on 22 January,[5] and the Green Party withdrew from government the next day, but promised to support the Finance Act.

Barry Andrews was appointed as health spokesman, Billy Kelleher transport, Peter Power foreign affairs and trade, and Niall Collins defence.

He also appointed Willie O'Dea, a former Minister of Defence who had resigned in February 2010 after committing perjury in front of the High Court, as communications spokesperson.

[92] In early February, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told political parties to go ahead with the terms of the EU-IMF financial bailout plan.

Micheál Martin was involved in an alleged racist gaffe, mocking a Chinese accent while speaking on his party's innovation proposals at the Dublin Web Summit.

[98] A number of public figures, including journalists Fintan O'Toole, David McWilliams and Eamon Dunphy, discussed standing as members of a loose alliance dubbed "Democracy Now" to reform the political system and replace the IMF bailout agreement with a structured debt default.

[99][100] O'Toole wrote on 29 January that, once the election date was brought forward from late March, "the risk of going off half-cocked seemed to outweigh the hope of making a difference", and the plan was abandoned.

[102] On 27 January, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny proposed a five-way debate which was also to include Sinn Féin and the Green Party.

Fine Gael took the lead in opinion polls after the October 2008 budget, which included tax increases and spending cuts to address the growing financial crisis.

A second emergency budget in April 2009 continued the downward trend in the popularity of the government parties, with Labour now capturing the gains from disaffected Fianna Fáil supporters.

Most polls between the 2009 local elections and the summer of 2010 showed Fine Gael far ahead in first place, around the mid-30s, with Fianna Fáil in the mid-20s and Labour in the low 20s.

As the economic crisis continued to worsen in late 2010, Fianna Fáil fell below 20% support, and did not recover from this in any opinion polls taken before the election.

Fianna Fáil and the Green Party fell to unprecedented lows, with improvements for Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and independent candidates, and a decline in Labour's position.

However, the exit poll taken on election night, and the subsequent results on the following days, showed an eleventh-hour fall in Fine Gael support to the mid-30s, the benefits of which seemed to accrue to Fianna Fáil and Independents.

The ULA comprised the Socialist Party, the People Before Profit Alliance, the Workers and Unemployed Action and independent candidate Declan Bree (2,284 votes).

Outgoing Finance Minister Brian Lenihan Jnr barely retained his Dublin West seat on the fifth count, and was, until his death on 10 June 2011, the lone Fianna Fáil TD from the capital.

[170] Forty-five sitting TDs (27% of the total) lost their Dáil seats: Fianna Fáil (35), Green Party (6), Fine Gael (3) and Independent (1).

"[174] Pressure continued to mount on Kenny's attempt to reconfigure the loan terms of the bailout as Merkel was scheduled to attend a European People's Party leaders' meet that Kenny, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and European Union President Herman Van Rompuy (of Belgium's CD&V) were also attending.

Host Finnish Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen, facing an election of his own, also opposed lowering Ireland's average loan rate of 5.8%.

In response to talking about indebted states cannot expect concessions having agreed to additional measures to boost competitiveness and stabilise their finances, he said: "You can't be rewarded by others for doing your job well.

He even suggested Fianna Fáil might have been swept out of the chamber entirely in a first-past-the-post system, and that the party now faced a battle to stay relevant on the Irish political scene.

[180][181] The teams were Michael Noonan, Phil Hogan and Alan Shatter for Fine Gael and Joan Burton, Brendan Howlin and Pat Rabbitte for Labour.